House buying and selling for dummies, please!

[catsofa]

I accidentally own a house (inherited). I want to sell it and buy a different one (need to be in a different area). How on earth does that happen?

I mean, what are the odds of selling and finding one that we can definitely buy at almost exactly the same time? How do "chains" even work? What if we find the perfect house before the one we have has sold? At least selling before we have anywhere to go I can imagine a bit better (but, eek!).

How long might the whole thing take to happen? There is work to do on the current house, but when it's "done" (assuming it sells ok which I think it would) how long might we expect reasonably until we can actually live somewhere else?

Also I need to time finding the perfect job in the new area with all this, as it's far too far to travel to a job in the new area from the old one.

I don't know anyone else who has ever bought or sold a house, so please start from the beginning!

THERE IS NO "PANIC" EMOTICON

1,Put your house on the market (see a few estate agents, decide on the price);

2,Look at houses where you want to move to. Once someone has made an offer on your house, you 're in a position to make an offer on a house you want to buy. You could offer before this, but the seller may not be interested until they know that you have a buyer.

3, instruct a solicitor to handle the selling and buying process. They'll set up the chain and give you lots of paperwork to sort out. Most will charge you both for selling and buying. You may also need to pay stamp duty on the house you buy (solicitor will organise this). You can pay the solicitor, the estate agent and stamp duty right at the end of the process from the money you get from selling your house. This means you won't be able to buy a house at the value of the one you sell unless you borrow more (mortgage) or use savings.

Oh and it could take 4 months if you're lucky. If not, could be much longer.

Thank you, that's so helpful. I hadn't even thought about having to pay solicitors etc and had assumed we'd basically get a new house at exactly the price we get for the old one! We will probably have to live in a shoebox then, but that's ok for now.

Any ballpark idea of how much solicitor, agent and duty cost?

Have a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/stamp-duty

Solicitors might cost around £2000

Estate agents around 1-2% of the sale